Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Duane Shields successfully defended the region title this year, and
there were a couple of other guys who managed the feat in the Southeast: veteran racer Jeff
Strickland protected the crown that he earned last year in Super Stock, and multi-category
competitor David Tatum III gathered more hardware as he continued to reign in Super Gas. Jeff
Adkinson earned the Stock Eliminator title, Shane Carr scored in Super Comp and Dave Connolly
picked up the Super Street title to round out the D2 champs.

Red Bay, Alabama-based Strickland launched into the season with an inkling of promise, driving his
SS/JA '95 Camaro to the final round at Bradenton, where he came up a little short against fellow D2
driver and event winner Rick Twitchell but logged important marks that would give him the edge as
the season wore on.

A week later - at the Gainesville points meet - Strickland made his way to the semifinals, and
another semifinals finish was in store in Atlanta for the hotshot who has regularly finished in the
division top 10. Strickland, the 2006 Super Comp division titlist, was chased by Anthony Bertozzi
for the Super Stock title. Bertozzi traveled out of division to Las Vegas in early November to
ultimately finish second by a 22 point deficit with a runner-up at South Georgia Motorsports Park
highlighting his performance.

Gary Coccaro, of Panama City, Fla., threw his hat into the ring in Atlanta by sweeping the event
and continued to compete through late summer and early fall, ending his quest 11 marks behind
Bertozzi and one point ahead of Twitchell in third place. Mike Crutchfield rounded out the top
five.

Jeff Adkinson

Adkinson, who tied Crutchfield for points in Super Stock and finished sixth, scored the division
championship in Stock Eliminator by 42 marks over Merrill Schrimscher. The accomplishment this year
was even richer as last season Adkinson had come right up to the Super Stock title but finished
second to Strickland.

Schrimscher had the early lead after launching into the 2011 D2 season with a victory at Bradenton
over red-lighting former champ Kevin Helms, and while the next two events were won by
out-of-towners - Gainesville belonged to Canton, Ohio's Dick Kincaid and Division 1's Russell
"Bubba" Linke won at South Georgia Motorsports Park - Adkinson, of Damascus, Ga., evened the score
with Schrimscher by nabbing the gold in his home state at Atlanta Dragway.

B/SA '69 Camaro driver Adkinson went on to pick up a few more round wins in Belle Rose and then a
couple in Columbus and more back in his home region at Charlotte, while Schrimscher was done going
rounds after his semifinals appearance in Atlanta.

Robbie Shaw held steady all year in Stock, winning rounds at each points meet he attended and
finishing in the final round at the event at Charlotte's zMax Dragway, and his end tally was just
one mark behind Schrimscher. Jim Marshall, the runner-up in Cecil, was No. 4 at the end of the
year, while Brenda Grubbs and Mary Meints each scored 235 total points (Grubbs was fifth on the
tiebreaker).

Shane Carr

If you want to know what it feels like to win, ask Carr; he did a bit of that this year. Carr
plumped his national event scorecard with two wins in three final rounds (one victory in Super
Stock and another in Super Comp), won Super Comp at the South Georgia Motorsports divisional, and
doubled up with a trophy in Super Comp and Super Stock in Division 1 at Cecil County. A six-time
national event winner across three categories, Carr parlayed his experience into a Super Comp title
in D2, a top five finish in Super Stock in the Northeast, and a tie for second place in the Super
Comp national standings driving for Tom Stalba.

The Pinellas Park, Fla., driver held off multi-time national and divisional champion Sherman Adcock
Jr., along with Tyler Caheely, Deborah Bogle and Atlanta winner Lauren Freer who finished 3rd, 4th
and 5th, respectively, for top honors. Ed Richardson was the winner of the opener at Bradenton
Motorsports Park with Caheely coming up second, and in Gainesville the title was awarded to
Michigan-based Division 2-claiming Steve Mikus over the Southeast's Stephen McCrory while Adcock
went to the semifinals and Carr picked up a round win.

At South Georgia Motorsports Park, Carr got that first division win of the season over final-round
opponent Bogle, and then he went north for a trip to the semifinals in Epping, N.H., and a couple
of round wins at Atco Raceway. Back home in the division, Carr went out early and watched Adcock
reel in a victory at zMax Dragway, but he got back on track with the double at Cecil County, and it
was pretty much in the bag. Adcock went four rounds at Silver Dollar Raceway, but it wasn't enough
to pass the points leader; Carr won the division by 45 points.

David Tatum

Southeast Super Gas titlist Tatum had another awesome year as he finished No. 5 in the national
standings and brought home the big trophy in the region. Tatum was looking for perfection early in
the season and achieved it at the first two events he competed in - he was the winner in Cecil as
well as Atlanta.

A journey north to Columbus was uneventful for the 2010 national champion, but a pair of win lights
in Stanton, Mich., added to his total. A quick trip over to Cordova for the Division 5 race padded
his lead a little more with four more rounds in the bank in his '05 Cavalier, and by the closer in
Reynolds, the Palmetto, Ga., resident was home free.

Adcock came out charging with a win in Charlotte - he finished fourth - and Tom Joseph steadily
accumulated marks throughout the season to finish third, but it was Stalba who gave Tatum a
serious scare. He pounced in Atco and turned out a triumph, and after a lull in Charlotte he went
to back-to-back finals to close out the season and finish second by just 19 points.

Connolly, crew chief on Pro Stock driver Erica Enders' ZaZa Energy team, got his driving fix this
season in the Lucas Oil ranks and scored the Super Street Division 2 title with a pair of wins
bettering his competitors. After a slow start in Bradenton, Connolly cleared the board in
Gainesville, putting the kibosh on a double-up for Super Comp winner Mikus and making it clear that
Big D was in the house.

Dave Connolly

The guy who calls Elyria, Ohio, home wheeled his '81 Malibu to a quarterfinals finish in Belle Rose
and then ended his season in August with a win in Charlotte. Ocala, Florida's Mike Griggs was a
three-time finalist this season, making it to the money round in Bradenton, Atlanta and Silver
Dollar Raceway. He finished second by 30 points, with Silver Dollar winner John Rollins in third
and Cecil runner-up Brian Funderburk fourth. Matt Caheely steadily brought in round wins for a
fifth place finish.